Slash stories (18+)

[Guest iffthelurker]

I'm jumping in a little late here...I've been in to slash since I knew it was out there. I rarely read anything else. And? I've tried several times to explain this to a couple of my friends lately and haven't had much luck there. Their question is -- being that I'm female and mostly in to women -- why am I so enamoured of m/m slash?

The first part of my answer is to explain why I'm in to slash at all. I enjoy it because it takes away the traditional gender roles. Most het fic that I've read doesn't manage to get away from the dominant male/submissive female roles, in most cases it plays them up, and that's not a turn-on for me at all. I prefer more dominant women in general and the wilting lily waiting for her prince to come save her from the dragon and sweep her off her feet instead of going out and saving herself from the dragon (and hey, maybe even saving the prince from the dragon on her way out of the cave) does nothing for me. And I like, at least in the world of slash, that men don't have to prove their manliness by suppressing their gentler emotions but can instead let themselves show that, even though they're still men, they can care, they can be upset, they can be sad, they can hurt, they can need help (and will even ask for it sometimes!), or they can want non-sexual physical contact, all of which I find to be a real turn-on and are things that I don't get in het fic. And that last little bit there is probably about as close as I can come to answering why you'd find m/m appealing in fic where you might not in real life.

The rest of my answer has to do with the fact that I don't seem to be able to find much f/f that appeals to me. I'd be just as in to it as I am in to m/m if most of it didn't read (or, in the case of manga/anime, watch) like a male fantasy (much in the way I'm sure most of the m/m stuff reads/watches like a female fantasy to most guys). I like my women realistically built, prefer ones who aren't the entertainment and fashion industries' ideas of "perfect", and like them with functioning brains in their heads. I also like to know why the characters are going at it. Like tma said, most of the f/f stuff that I've found has been devoid of character development or plot (I'm not a big fan of m/m PWPs either), and the characters are not physically appealing to me either. The ones that haven't fit that mold were incredibly enjoyable, but they've been very few and extremely far between.

In general though, Kisa was right. I like it because I find it hot.

[mystic-chibi]

I think that I like them because there is that "forbidden" quality to it. I'm all for gay rights, but there are still alot of ppl who thinks it's wrong and view it as something that shouldn't be done. But I think the best thing is the risk of rejection in the story by one of the men, the suspence of not knowing how the man will react to being liked by another man....will they freak out and reject the feelings, will they feel the same and not care. I also like that in m/m you get alot more secret relationships, and hidden feelings.